Grand Bargain Dead

Friday, July 22, 2011

Getty

Obama at snap White House briefing room turn says Boehner spurned "extraordinarily fair" pact that included major spending cuts and tax increases.

Obama on House GOPers: "Can they say 'yes' to anything?"

President summons Hill leaders to 11am White House meeting Saturday.

Obama: "They're going to have to explain to me how we are going to avoid default."

Speaker let administration and his colleagues know he was cutting off negotiations with Bam and moving to talks with Senate leaders.

Boehner letter: "A deal was never reached, and was never really close. In the end, we couldn’t connect."

Obama continues to insist on debt limit extension past 2012 elex..

Halperin's Take

Congressional leaders say the talks now move to the floors of the House and Senate. Good luck with that. There STILL has to be agreement between Boehner, Cantor, Reid, Hoyer, and Obama to get anything to the president's desk. Even finding a stop-gap measure now will be hard. Most in conflict: Obama won't accept a short-term measure, and House Republicans will insist on no revenue and cuts greater than the debt ceiling increase. And, most ominously, a market crash now isn't guaranteed to have the bracing effect of forcing a compromise. Instead, it would likely lead to even more intense finger pointing.